"He said he was doing it, transparently, he is not doing it," Buchanan said Wednesday. "The idea that he's out there in Denver playing pool and drinking beer suggests a certain amount of contempt for the people who are concerned about this issue."

The political commentator, who also served as communications director in the Reagan administration, says that if he had that job in the Obama administration, he would have made sure he understood the kind of message he was sending by not visiting the border when he was in Texas raising funds.

"It is a manifest message . . . that 'I really don't give a damn about what is going on on the American border,'" Buchanan said.